RICHARD BRIERS

Like so many friends of Richard Briers from around the world, whether they knew him personally or not, the news of his death on Sunday has saddened so many hearts.

My thoughts are for Richard’s wife Annie today as I am reminded about her and Richard’s support for me – after my wife Hanny died in 2011.

When I began ‘cooking for one’ after 42 years of gourmet cosseting, Richard would phone to see how I was getting along.

“How you unravelling the mystery of the kitchen Old Daahhling?” He would ask in a Terry Thomas kind of way; following up with grim details about a meal he once cooked for Annie when he first invited her to dinner a long time ago – Florida spring vegetable soup from a packet.

Richard’s dish made it to Nigel Slater’s A Taste of My Life – while, I must say, several of my dishes have not even passed the Cat-O-Meter test!

I live in a country town in New South Wales so the telephone or notes in the post have been our main communication. I can write emails but Richard was never interested – explaining that the most complicated electrical gadget at his house was the toaster in the kitchen.

While working with Richard in a London recording studio, I was always fascinated by the red pencil marks that he had made on the Roobarb scripts I’d sent to him in the post.

It was apparent that he had spent a great deal of time at home reading through each script, practising character voices and pacing the story before turning up to the studio on Recording Day.

When the recording light went on Richard would begin – as though reading a bedtime story to children. A studio clock would time the read and as it entered the last second – Richard would close the story and leave grown technicians in a wonderland.

2 Responses

I work in the BBC’s Literary Copyright department and I am currently trying to establish who we would need to contact in order to clear the use of Roobarb extracts for use in BBC programmes.

I have been through the various contracting database systems and have come across a few passing references to the rights being held by Bob Godfrey Films Ltd. and then latterly, A+BTV Ltd. but I can find no reference to yourself or details of the current rights holder.

If you have any information I would be extremely grateful if you could pass them on to me as we would like to make sure that the appropriate permissions are in place for the use of any Roobarb extracts with particular interest in the script element therein.

To introduce myself I work as the Archivist at the University for the Creative Arts, and in charge of the management of the extensive Bob Godfrey Archive (artwork, animation cels, scripts etc), , which is currently being catalogued under the direction of our Archive Cataloguer. This includes some collaboration work that you undertook with Bob Godfrey, including Dirty Rat Tales. It would be great to get in touch with you to talk about the inspiration behind your work, which would really enhance our cataloguing process.

Roobarb 1974

‘When Roobarb made a spike’ was my 1973 pilot film that led the way to the now famous animated Roobarb BBC television series. The wobbly green dog first bounced onto Britain’s TV screens in 1974 and within two weeks of its debut on BBC TV, the show had attracted a regular seven million viewers – adults as well as children.

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New Roobarb out now on Apple

The new Apple iBook, ROOBARB An illuminated biogwoofy – Grange Calveley tells how ‘Real Dog Roobarb’ escaped from prison, how his antics inspired Grange Calveley to write the hit British television series.

Packed with lots of ’behind the scenes’ snippets, illustrations and photos, this newly edited book is the complete read for Roobarb fans young and old. Grab your digital copy now!

Noah and Nelly in … SklArk

Nutty Noah, Captain of the SkylArk consults his map and randomly picks out a place to visit with a dart. The SkylArk then travels to its destination on land, by air, on the sea or underwater. Each plot finds the SkylArk's crew discovering a bunch of odd characters (such as talking money) – always moaning about a problem. Every story sees Noah's wife Nelly solving the problem with her knitting skills. Noah and Nelly in SkylArk Witty scripts by Grange Calveley, narrated by Richard Briers and directed by Bob Godfrey. Completely mad and no doubt before its time.

Welcome to the Grange Calveley website, my allotment in space.
This is where I grow all my ideas. I have seed trays bursting with new ideas and I enjoy exhibiting the pick of my old favourites, Roobarb and SkylArk - both slightly faded now but still a good harvest of fun. Anyway, please come in have a dig around.